In order to increase efficiencies of gas turbine engines, gas turbine engine manufacturers rely on extreme turbine inlet temperatures to provide a boost to the overall engine performance. In some modern gas turbine engine applications, the gas path temperatures within the turbine exceed the melting point of the constituent materials from which the underlying components of the gas path are constructed. To address the extreme heat, cooling systems are used to cool the gas path components in the turbine.
One exemplary mechanism for cooling turbine gas path components is a ceramic thermal barrier coating (TBC) adhered to an exterior surface of the gas path component. The presence of the thermal barrier coating significantly reduces the operating temperature of the component and allows for lower cooling flow requirements.